As I stepped into the shiny new Garfield gym to see two teams of volleyballers huddled close, consoling or congratulating each other for the last play, a realization came to me: Volleyball is a very girly sport. And I don’t mean girly, as in weak, I just mean girly, as in a something-any-respectable-boy-would-not-be-caught-dead-doing sport. Maybe it was the color-coordinated ribbons in each girl’s ponytail, or possibly the fact that after each point is made, the girl who scored receives a congratulatory slap on the behind. Or it could even be the tight fitting uniform complete with spandex short-shorts. Whatever the case (it was probably the spandex), imagining boys out on the court playing the same game is preposterous, right? Wrong.

Dylan Koutsky, Garfield’s most huggable senior, intends to make boys volleyball into a Bulldog club sport this year and compete with teams across the city. The men of the Garfield pep band have been watching (and learning from) the Volleydogs’ domination. In 2007, Koutsky along with spirited upperclassmen (specifically Kris Brown of ’07) came up with the idea while at a game vs. Redmond.

“After the KingCo districts in ‘07, we were at Redmond and at the end of the game we ended up scrimmaging their pep band, which was like Garfield vs. Redmond boys volleyball,” said Koutsky. “We said ‘Hey, let’s start some boys volleyball’ because people seemed to get really excited about it.”

Although this will be their first year as an official team at Garfield, it also looks to be a rebuilding year for the Volleyboys’ squad. “In terms of star players, we lost a lot of key ones last year like Joey Shaw, Jake Linde, Noah Cohn, and Carver Low,” said junior and returning player Riley Mulherkar. “But we look to fill up the roster with some young boys this year and train ‘em up so they can learn from us veterans for the next season.”

Unfortunately, the guys may face a few obstacles this winter as they attempt to kick off the premier of the newest Garfield sport. Numbers may be one of the biggest problems seeing as there were four of last year’s six leading guys graduated. Robbie Low, junior, and Koutsky are the two remaining players and likely team captains this year. For now, the plan is to wait until basketball season starts and see how many prospects are interested. In the meantime, there will be open volleyball in the gym through mid-November.

Gym space may be the other limiting factor for the team this year. According to coach Leslie Hamann, finding a place to practice may be nearly impossible. Basketball uses the Garfield gymnasium every day except Sunday and for some reason the school district will not allow boys volleyball to use the space then.

“Once basketball season is over, the gym space frees up considerably. But then we run into another problem�most of the Garfield boys interested in volleyball play a spring sport [like] lacrosse, soccer, track, or baseball,” said Hamann. “We could only practice once a week on the weekends, if at all.”

Volleyball would not be a full-blown varsity sport at Garfield, as it would technically be a club team. Besides entering themselves in coed tournaments, they would participate in a Boys Club Volleyball program that is run not by the school district but by the Puget Sound Volleyball Association, similar to select soccer or basketball. However, none of these games would ever be in the Garfield gym and would probably not take place against rival schools like Roosevelt.

If, through some miracle, the boys are able to rustle up enough players, find gym space, and establish a “league of their own,” other Seattle-area schools have expressed interest in playing as well. Mercer Island, Vashon, and Roosevelt have all said that they would like to play in a league like this with Garfield, according to Koutsky.

If everything came together, Boys volleyball would be lots of fun to watch and participate in, save one major problem. What about the pep band? Girls volleyball games, while often climactic, at times even thrilling, would not be the same without the deafening drum beat and fervent cheers led by the pep band. One option is the JV girls Volleydogs.

“Garfield JV girls say they’ll step it up,” Koutsky said. “We’ll see what they do.”

The cheering, the jeering, and the all-around spirited atmosphere is what has made girls’ volleyball such a popular spectator sport among the Bulldog population. With the boys, the expectations are nothing less. Plus, they may even wear spandex.